Of Worlds

For many people, a career within the electrical industry remains an interesting and varied choice. Within this document we will not use the full term of Electro-Mechanical Engineering but use the term Electrical Industry instead. Furthermore, we will focus on the UK market and the domestic and commercial elements rather than those from elsewhere around the world. Since there is such a wide list of choices in the electrical industry, we’ll start by looking at the main themes first and then come back to any ‘add-ons’ later.

Essentially, we see two distinct forms of entry into the electrical market. To being with we have the older apprentice course and then secondly we have the option for those who wish to make a career change to join the industry. To clarify, we’ll label each of them as the ‘Mature Entrants’ and the ‘Junior Entrants’.

Mature Entrants who join the industry later on do so with the aim of working for themselves, usually as a one person business. Those who join as Junior Entrants, on the other hand, appear to do so with the aim of joining an established electrical firm - in order to gain further qualifications and experience whilst picking up practical and other work-place skills. To be fair, young apprentices leaving school will have a lot of supplementary skills to learn during their early years as a working adult.

The two different ways into the industry have two separate methods of preparation. It is the involvement with NVQ’s (or SVQ’s for Scotland), that differentiate the Junior Entrants. As part of the training program an NVQ would be a requirement to attain. Often, this means that students have to gain an apprenticeship in order to be able to realise the course work and testing requirements of the job.

By working independently and without the need for NVQ assessments, many Mature Entrants can concentrate on those areas that provide the biggest profit and offer the largest practical solutions for themselves. In the main the person will aim to gain the best from their investment costs against the return for that training. This method may appear to reduce the levels of knowledge overall, but it does allow for an increase in the speed by which people enter and become more prevalent within the market.

Salaries are often simply broken down to those that relate to self -employed people and those in general employment. For the sake of this document we will assume that everyone involved in electrical employment is working full-time. The aptitude and talent for getting things done can affect the levels of salary as well as any experience or knowledge gained.

With the right level of experience, ‘Junior Entrants’ salaries can rise considerably from twelve to thirty thousand pounds per annum. On the other hand experienced self-employed electricians have been known to earn around 70 thousand or more within the UK. Irrespective of this salary level many self-employed people also need to manage extra business costs such as tools, clothes and vans. Allocations for personal/professional insurance will also have to be catered for. With the current skills shortage in the UK, there is a high work load demand available. Therefore, working seven days a week (if a student wanted) is a possibility for most. To be fair, high salaries bounded about by the press do require long working hours or help to achieve them.

In light of the above, it is often understood that there is wild variance between the working expectations of Junior and Mature Entrants. Electricians who are ‘Junior Entrants’ would work a simple 40 hour working week. Whereas the Mature market can be more dependent on the domestic market for some - i.e. weekend and evening work, when their clients are available and back from work. With many self-employed electricians the core of their income comes from items such as business testing and installation and as such operates during the main part of the week.

Once a Junior Entrant is employed within a company, then any follow-on knowledge they gain is often down to the employers’ activity as opposed to anything else. However, many mature entrants gain extra skills by learning those trades such as gas and plumbing work. Without a doubt the extra skills help them in their overall employ whether this is commercial or domestic work.

An area that is relatively new to the industry overall, yet requires new expertise is that of ‘Green Engineering’. The curiosity of both Junior and Mature Electricians to this new industry is well founded especially when considering the power of the UK and the EEC markets in areas of growth and governmental projects.

(C) Scott Edwards 2009. Look at Part P Courses or www.CareerChangeHelp.co.uk/qcch.html.

If you’d like to become a web designer with relevant qualifications for the job market today, the course you need is Adobe Dreamweaver.

In order to use Dreamweaver professionally in web design, an in-depth understanding of the entire Adobe Web Creative Suite (which incorporates Flash and Action Script) is in our opinion essential. With this knowledge, you can go onto become either an Adobe Certified Expert (ACE) or Adobe Certified Professional (ACP).

Building the website only scratches the surface of what you’ll need - in order to drive traffic, update content, and work on dynamic sites that are database driven, you will need other programming skills, namely ones like PHP, HTML, and MySQL. A good web designer will additionally gain a working knowledge of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and E-Commerce.

Commercially accredited qualifications are now, undoubtedly, beginning to replace the more academic tracks into the IT industry - why then should this be?

The IT sector is now aware that to learn the appropriate commercial skills, certified accreditation from the likes of CISCO, Adobe, Microsoft and CompTIA most often has much more specialised relevance - saving time and money.

Essentially, students are simply taught the necessary specifics in depth. It’s not quite as straightforward as that, but the most important function is always to master the precisely demanded skill-sets (alongside some required background) - without trying to cram in every other area (as academia often does).

As long as an employer is aware what areas they need covered, then all they have to do is advertise for the exact skill-set required to meet that need. Syllabuses are all based on the same criteria and can’t change from one establishment to the next (like academia frequently can and does).

Chat with any expert consultant and we’d be amazed if they couldn’t provide you with many horror stories of salespeople ripping-off unsuspecting students. Make sure you deal with an experienced professional who asks lots of questions to discover the most appropriate thing for you - not for their pay-packet! You need to find a starting-point that will suit you.

An important point to note is that, if you’ve got any qualifications that are related, then it’s not unreasonable to expect to commence studying further along than a student who’s starting from scratch.

Starting with a user skills course first may be the ideal way to get into your computer studies, depending on your current skill level.

Doing your bit in revolutionary new technology really is electrifying. You become one of a team of people impacting progress around the world.

Society largely thinks that the increase in technology we have experienced is cooling down. There is no truth in this at all. Massive changes are on the horizon, and most especially the internet will become an increasingly dominant part of our lives.

The usual IT professional in the United Kingdom has been shown to get much more money than his or her counterpart outside of IT. Average wages are amongst the highest in the country.

Because the IT market sector is still growing with no sign of a slow-down, it’s likely that demand for qualified professionals will remain buoyant for quite some time to come.

When was the last time you considered your job security? For most people, this only rears its head when something dramatic happens to shake us. But really, The cold truth is that job security doesn’t really exist anymore, for the vast majority of people.

Now, we only experience security via a rapidly growing market, driven by a lack of trained workers. It’s this alone that creates the right conditions for a higher level of market-security - definitely a more pleasing situation.

Offering the IT industry as an example, a key e-Skills survey highlighted a skills gap throughout the UK in excess of 26 percent. That means for every four jobs in existence throughout IT, we have only 3 certified professionals to fulfil that role.

Properly taught and commercially educated new workers are consequently at a resounding premium, and in all likelihood it will stay that way for many years longer.

Unquestionably, it really is a fabulous time to train for the computer industry.

Copyright Scott Edwards 2009. Go to Web Designer Courses or www.CareersOpportunity.co.uk/vcaropp.html.

There are four specialist areas of training in a full CompTIA A+ program; you’re considered an A+ achiever when you’ve gained exams for 2 out of 4 subjects. This is the reason that most training providers limit themselves to 2 study areas. In reality to carry out a job effectively, you’ll need the training for all four areas as a lot of employment will demand an awareness of the entire course. Don’t feel pressured to qualify in them all, but it seems common sense that you take tutorials in all 4 subjects.

Once on the CompTIA A+, you will learn how to build, fix, repair and work in antistatic conditions. Diagnostic techniques and fault finding are also on the syllabus, as is remote access.

If you add Network+ to your CompTIA A+ training course, you will additionally be able to assist with or manage networks of computers, meaning you’re in a position to move further up the career path.

Many trainers have a handy Job Placement Assistance program, designed to steer you into your first job. Often, too much is made of this feature, because it is actually not that hard for well qualified and focused men and women to find a job in the IT industry - as employers are keen to find appropriately trained staff.

Help with your CV and interview techniques is sometimes offered (if not, see one of our sites for help). Make sure you bring your CV right up to date right away - don’t leave it till you pass the exams!

Getting onto the ‘maybe’ pile of CV’s is far better than not even being known about. Often junior support jobs are given to students (who’ve only just left first base.)

The top companies to help get you placed are usually specialist independent regional recruitment consultancies. As they’re keen to place you to receive their commission, they’re perhaps more focused on results.

Just ensure you don’t put hundreds of hours of effort into your studies, and then just stop and leave it up to everyone else to secure your first position. Stop procrastinating and get on with the job. Channel the same focus into finding your first job as you did to gain the skills.

A typical blunder that potential students often succumb to is to focus entirely on getting a qualification, and take their eye off the desired end-result. Schools are brimming over with students that chose an ‘interesting’ course - instead of what would yield an enjoyable career or job.

Never let yourself become one of those unfortunate people who choose a training program that seems ‘fun’ or ‘interesting’ - only to end up with a qualification for an unrewarding career path.

Make sure you investigate what your attitude is towards career progression and earning potential, and if you’re ambitious or not. It’s vital to know what will be expected of you, what particular qualifications are required and in what way you can develop commercial experience.

Before you embark on a study course, trainees are advised to chat over the specific job requirements with an experienced industry advisor, in order to be sure the retraining programme covers all that is required.

One area often overlooked by those weighing up a particular programme is the concept of ‘training segmentation’. Basically, this means how the program is broken down into parts for drop-shipping to you, which makes a huge difference to the point you end up at.

A release of your materials stage by stage, as you complete each module is the usual method of releasing your program. This sounds sensible, but you should take these factors into account:

Maybe the order of study insisted on by the company won’t suit you. It may be difficult to get through every element inside of their particular timetable?

To be in the best situation you would have all the learning modules packed off to your address right at the beginning; the whole caboodle! Thus avoiding any future problems that could impede the reaching of your goals.

People attracted to this sort of work can be very practical by nature, and won’t enjoy sitting at a desk in class, and endless reading of dry academic textbooks. If this is putting you off studying, opt for more involving, interactive learning materials, where learning is video-based.

Research has always verified that becoming involved with our studies, to utilise all our senses, is proven to produce longer-lasting and deeper memory retention.

Courses are now available on CD and DVD discs, where your computer becomes the centre of your learning. Using video-streaming, you will be able to see the instructor presenting exactly how to do something, and then have a go at it yourself - in a virtual lab environment.

You must ensure that you see examples of the study materials provided by your chosen company. Be sure that they contain video demo’s and interactive elements such as practice lab’s.

Some companies only have access to training that is purely available online; sometimes you can get away with this - but, consider how you’ll deal with it if your access to the internet is broken or you get intermittent problems and speed issues. It is usually safer to have actual CD or DVD ROMs that removes the issue entirely.

Copyright 2009 Scott Edwards. Pop to Website Design Course or Click HERE.